Nicole Kidman on Aging and Her Favorite Skin Care Products

Before Nicole Kidman accepted the award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie at the Emmys this past weekend, I chatted with her on the phone as she was prepping to head out to LA. We could have gone on all day about skin care. Her love for sunscreen and makeup-removing wipes runs seriously deep, and as a beauty writer, I thoroughly respect that. Her skin looks damn good for it. During our call, she spilled some of her skin-care secrets and revealed how she really feels about the anti-aging label.

"Neutrogena's Rapid Wrinkle Repair Cream won't cause you to break out or cause you to get a rash. A lot of times, [wrinkle creams] can be too strong for my skin. It's a really great cream, and I give it to my friends of many different ages. And they're coming to me now saying, 'I need more.' It really does seem to make your skin supple and smooth. I'm getting on a plane tomorrow, and that's what I'll be using. I use it at night. You can use it for a week, and you can see something."

On her skin type:

"I have fair skin, obviously, and I have sensitive skin. And I have skin that has to withstand a lot because I travel, I run around, and I'm not really high maintenance. Anything that's simple and easy, I'll do it. If it's complicated, I'm like, 'No.'"

"I think the focus on age is ridiculous now because everyone keeps saying 40 is the new 30, 50 is the new 40, all of those. Well, hold on, just be. It's that simple. I think once you take labels and numbers away and you just let women be — and men, because they're in the same boat — defining yourself is a much better way of doing it. You know, women are having children so much later now. Everything is shifting, so I think the message is taking it off numbers. And also, the presentation of what is age. I'm used to playing different characters of all different ages, and I try to blur the lines. I think that's the most important thing. With the blurring of that, one minute, I'm in Big Little Lies playing Celeste and the next I'm playing in Top of the Lake. I'm in a completely different character with the long gray hair. Then, I'm in Lion playing her when she's young and when she's older. It's fantastic to be able to move around, which I think is what everyone wants anyway."

On how her thoughts about aging have changed over time:

"I think back to being a teenager, and I don't think I ever had any kind of attention on it. It wasn't part of my focus, which is probably the same for teenagers now. I think the more we can make the focus about health and feeling good about yourself and self esteem and confidence and all of those things where you just go, "Okay, well, that defines me as a person.'"

On how she defines herself:

"Well, I'm a mother, so nurturing and taking care of people is a very, very big part of who I am, and I love that."

On her favorite sunscreen:

"I love the Neutrogena Sheer Zinc Sunscreen. I grew up wearing white zinc on my face, which was just awful. Sitting at the beach with a huge thing of white zinc that my hair would always get stuck in. You know, I'm Australian, and I'm grateful that I had something to protect my skin."

On her love for makeup wipes:

"There's a lot of me getting on planes and using remover wipes. A lot of times, I'm getting on with makeup on because I'm coming from somewhere, and I'll just go straight to the airport, which I think a lot of women do because they're working and probably just want to get home. I'm either in the car, taking everything off or I'm in the car reapplying because my makeup is caked a little bit. And that's why just to have a wipe is so, ugh, thank god. It's just like, quick get it off."

On helping out her husband, Keith Urban's beauty routine:

"I mean, my husband has great hair. I want his hair. Sometimes, I'll be like, 'Hey, you should put this on your skin or try this.' He's pretty dude, so he's like, 'uh, I don't know about that.' He's also just low maintenance, deeply low maintenance, so I kinda have to look out for him."